The amount you pay for rent determines a number of things: whether you have a roof over your head, how much money you have left over at the end of the month, the list goes on.

But what does the price of rent mean for your values?

It turns out, in addition to being vital in itself, housing affordability has wide-ranging implications for many of the most important issues we face as a community and as a country. As Jerusalem Demsas wrote last month in the Atlantic, laws on important issues like abortion and LGBT rights often vary from state to state. As Demsas pointed out, wealthy blue states like California, New York and Connecticut cannot claim to live up to their inclusive values if housing prices make them inaccessible to lower-income people.

While Minnesota is not as wealthy as those states, nor as blue, we face similar challenges. Minnesota is bluer than all of our neighboring states, having voted for the Democratic candidate in every presidential election since 1976.

In addition to presidential election results, this means if Roe v. Wade is overturned, abortion is expected to remain legal here even as it’s banned elsewhere. The president and CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States told the Associated Press last month that they’ve been “fortifying” their operation to cope with increased demand from out-of-state patients. That same president, Sarah Stoesz, also said that “an abortion ban is not an abortion ban for all people … [i]t is only an abortion ban for those who lack the means to travel to a state where abortion is safe and accessible.”

In other words, Minnesota’s abortion laws matter not just for Minnesotans, but also for those from more restrictionist states. And if those people want to live in a state that respects their reproductive rights, they will be faced with major barriers when it comes to housing.

Abortion isn’t the only reason more people will be migrating to Minnesota in the coming years. I talked to Evan Roberts, a sociology and population studies professor here at the University of Minnesota who studies housing regulations. Roberts is also affiliated with the activist group Neighbors for More Neighbors. He told me that the Twin Cities will likely experience both “direct” and “indirect” climate migration. While some people will be explicitly thinking about climate and decide that the “long-term prognosis of living in somewhere like Phoenix or Las Vegas” doesn’t look good, others, he said, will simply be tired of increasing temperatures and decide “they want to live in a cooler place.”

The 2018 Fourth National Climate Assessment offered a similar prediction for the Midwest as a whole. While climate change will harm this region in many ways, such as deaths and reduced crop yields from extreme heat, it could draw people from other places. In this assessment, the authors wrote that Minneapolis and Minnesota “will be among the few places where the value of warmer winters outweighs the cost of hotter summers.” The assessment also said that limited evidence suggests that the current trend of more people leaving the Midwest than moving here could reverse, in part because of climate.

Roberts also told me that the Twin Cities already has a “fairly hot” housing market. Various support systems, such as expanded unemployment insurance, helped alleviate the economic hardship brought on by the pandemic. But that money has to go somewhere, and many people have spent it on housing. Plus, remote work means some are relocating to different homes. All of this adds up to higher housing prices, Roberts said.

And while everyone is impacted by these high prices, the most impacted are the lowest-income households. One in four people in Minnesota are burdened by housing costs, according to the Minnesota Department of Health. “Cost-burdened,” in this context, means they spend at least 30% of their income on housing. Other forms of inequality, such as systemic racism, make this deprivation even worse. That MDH report also outlines how federal laws, lending practices and zoning have made housing even less accessible for Black people.

There has been progress in some of these areas. In December 2018, Minneapolis became the first major city in America to end single-family zoning citywide. Single-family zoning (SFZ) laws ban the construction of apartment buildings; this is common throughout the country. SFZ has a long history of racism, and it still perpetuates de facto segregation today. In addition, it drives up prices. I’m glad that Minneapolis has done away with these harmful laws, but it is not the only city in the Metro. While some positive steps are being taken, both St. Paul and many suburbs still exclude denser housing from particular areas.

Roberts said that while eliminating SFZ has reduced rents in Minneapolis, more needs to be done. In particular, he said, it needs to become “more feasible to do four- and six-unit development.” With Neighbors for More Neighbors, Roberts was involved in the campaign to abolish SFZ in Minneapolis.

We could also provide more housing vouchers to help people afford rent. And expanding tenant protections, such as a right to counsel, would help people stay in their homes. However, some policies, like rent control, might not work. A working paper published by the San Francisco Fed in March found that while rent control improves stability for existing low-income residents, it makes it harder for new low-income residents to move in.

No matter what we do, we must approach it with the knowledge that housing policy matters for much more than just your monthly rent.